


Vanilla Chai

by frerarcl



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, barista!Frank, gerard is an idiot, he's more clueless actually, my chem doesn't exist, my chem doesnt exist, neither does pencey, or death spells, the breakfast monkey happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 19:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2121276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frerarcl/pseuds/frerarcl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank loves his job for a few reasons: free coffee, he gets to pick what music plays, his salary isn't shit. Oh, and not to mention that hot guy who keeps coming in who created a cartoon. That guy's the best part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vanilla Chai

"Frank. Dude. Wake up," hisses a sharp voice, before his shoulder is damn near shaken out of its socket. Frank groans and rubs his eyes, looking up at the face of pure rage. Well, most wouldn't recognize it as pure rage. Nicole's face is stony, as per the usual, but in her eyes is the fire of one thousand tortured souls or some shit. That wakes him up. He looks at his watch and is relieved that no one usually comes in this time of day, and he can't have been asleep for more than twenty minutes. He breathes a 'shit yeah' before someone clears their throat. His head snaps up, and he kind of wishes it hadn't, because 1) now he's got a wicked headache, and 2) the guy standing there blushing and shifting his weight is really hot. He knows he can't flirt, though; Nicole would know. She's retreated to the back room because she's on break, but she would know. She always does. Frank thinks it's fucking creepy.

"Sorry about that, sir. What can I get for you?" Frank says in his best business voice. It's not much of a business voice, but it works well enough.

"Oh, uh, a venti vanilla chai latte, please?" the guy asks, rolling his shoulder to better hold his bag and looking at Frank through his eyelashes, head bowed. Said bag is huge, and Frank's kind of curious. Whatever, it can wait. Nicole will _know_.

"I'd ask for a name, but I kind of doubt anyone's going to show up at some independently-owned coffee shop at 4:00 in the afternoon," Frank smiles. The guy kind of breathes his laugh, a small grin appearing and his blush receding. Frank starts on the latte and decides to make small talk over the counter.

"So, what's in the bag? Severed head?" he jokes. Though, in this part of town, it very well could be.

"Not quite," the guy giggles, high-pitched and kind of weirdly endearing. "Art supplies."

"A starving artist in Jersey. Funny, I thought we shipped all of those out to New York," Frank replies.

"We're only shipped to New York for college. Afterwards, we starve and art wherever we want," the guy says, and Frank has to look up at him to tell if he's being sarcastic or not. Judging by the grin, he is.

"Sounds like a lot of fun. How goes the starving artistry? You doing your latest piece on the depths of the human soul via blocks or what?" Frank asks.

"I'm not working on a piece, per se. I'm working on a storyboard," Hot Guy tells him. Frank's starting to think maybe he should have asked for the guy's name anyway.

"Mind if I ask what storyboard you're working on? Eh, too bad, I'm asking either way. As long as it's not, like, tentacle porn. If it's tentacle porn just lie and tell me it's the news."

"The news doesn't have a storyboard, and it's totally tentacle porn," the guy says with a small grin.

"Damn. Okay, really though. Whatcha workin' on?"

"It's a show called 'The Breakfast Monkey.'"

"Is it about a monkey who makes breakfast?"

"Mmm. Not quite."

"What else would a breakfast monkey do?"

"He's a monkey superhero who reinforces how important breakfast is. Also, he wears a white button-down and a red beret."

"Why a red beret?"

"I think the better question is why not a red beret."

"Touche," Frank says with an air of finality, presenting Hot Breakfast Monkey Storyboard Guy with his latte. "And I know what it's about. I see it advertised all the time."

"It's only ever advertised on Cartoon Network," the guy points out.

"I see it while waiting for Adult Swim. It's where I go to catch up on Bob's Burgers."

"Fair enough. And I would like you to write my name on this anyway, so when I come in at 4:00 tomorrow and I am not the only one here because I'm not the only one who likes a nice latte at four, you will know what to call me other than 'Breakfast Monkey Guy,'" he says.

"I wasn't going to call you Breakfast Monkey Guy," Frank tells him. He wasn't. Though he may have said Hot Breakfast Monkey Guy.

"Get your magic barista Sharpie and write my name on the damn thing," the guy tells him, pushing the coffee forward. Frank pulls out his decidedly not-magic barista Sharpie. 

"The name's Gerard," the guy- Gerard- says. Frank scratches it down in his messy handwriting, returning the cup. 

"No one's going to come tomorrow at four," Frank calls after him as he exits.

"We'll see," Gerard calls over his shoulder.

 

 

 

                                                                                                

 

 

"Did you have something to do with this?" Frank asks Gerard the next day, looking around at the crowded shop. "No one ever comes to Roasted, especially not at four, and yet somehow we have people waiting outside despite it being November in Jersey."

"I may have something to do with it," Gerard confirms. "But hey, what can I do? I gotta prove people wrong when they tell me something won't happen. I gotta make it happen."

"I'm impressed. How'd you do it?" Frank inquires.

"Twitter. Told people they'd probably meet me if they came by at four," Gerard smirks. "I've got my ways."

"Yes, I understand you have a family. What kind of coffee you want, you're holding up the line," Frank jokes. Gerard does that giggle thing again and Frank thinks that maybe 'cute' is a better word for describing Gerard. 'Hot' implies 'I wanna put my dick in it,' and though Frank probably wouldn't mind that, it's not the first thing he thinks. More like, he kinda wants to kiss that dumb smile off of Gerard's face. Cute. 

"Vanilla chai latte," he simply shrugs, the smile showing no sign of disappearing.

"Venti?" Frank asks.

"Mmhmm. Look at you, learning so much already," Gerard tells him, pulling the 'grandmother at Christmas' voice and going so far as to lean over the counter to pinch Frank's cheeks. What an adorable man-child. Cute. Frank gets on it, and for the first time in the three years he's worked at Roasted, Nicole opens the second cash register and starts working next to him. They both churn out as many coffees as is physically possible, and by the time they're done filling orders, they're both breaking a sweat and have to sit down. Surprisingly, it's not a problem finding a place to sit. The customers have formed a cluster around Gerard, and Frank looks on in amusement. Most seem to be parents congratulating him on his successful show and thanking him for something decent for their kids to watch that doesn't bore the parents to death. The rest seem to be teenagers or people in their early twenties who still have to babysit for some extra cash and, after checking out his Twitter, have decided he's cool enough for them to like. A dark head pops up in the middle, and a pair of hazel eyes settle on Frank.

"Hey! C'mere. I wanna sit with a cool kid," Gerard calls. Frank obliges, and the crowd parts for him, if reluctantly. He plops down next to Gerard, who narrows his eyes at Frank.

"What?" Frank asks.

"You know my name, but I don't know yours. You don't wear a name tag. I think that's kind of unfair. What title did your parents bestow upon you at your time of birth?" Gerard asks.

"Frank," he says.

"I was hoping for something more dramatic and punk rock."

"Why?"

"The tattoos and sordid personality led me to believe I was talking to someone with a really interesting name. It was just Frank."

"Is. I'm not a past-tense. And I apologize for not saying as a newborn, 'Frank's a shitty name. Name me Anakin. I'm all for that shit.'"

"If your name was Anakin, that would be cool."

"But it isn't."

"No, unfortunately it's not," Gerard sighs in mock-disappointment.

"I hate to disappoint," Frank says, and then the crowd is back at it and Gerard talks to them for a few hours before the last of them clear out. Frank is almost asleep at that point, but Gerard shakes his shoulder and he looks over at the taller man.

"They're gone," Gerard says, like it isn't obvious.

"I know. My shift ended an hour ago," Frank says.

"You wanna... Hang out, or something?" Gerard asks.

"Are we in high school, because that was the last time someone asked me to 'hang out'?" Frank retorts.

"I'm pegging you for the shitty horror movie type," Gerard says, eyes still narrowed.

"You're not pegging me at all, or there'd be a lot more moaning and bodily fluids involved," Frank says, tired enough to have no filter between brain and mouth and not care. Gerard doesn't seem to bothered by it, but he crosses his legs.

"Do you wanna watch b-list horror flicks and eat junk food until three AM?" Gerard rephrases.

"That sounds magical. I'm in," Frank replies.

 

 

 

                                                                                               

 

 

"Good afternoon, Frank," says Gerard, walking into the coffee shop like he has been every for the past two weeks.

"Here's your latte, loser," Frank smiles, handing him the cup.

"You know me so well. Speaking of how well you know me! I have a question," Gerard states, looking at Frank with curious eyes.

"Ask it," Frank prompts.

"Are you into dudes?" Gerard asks bluntly.

"Why?" Frank replies, honestly confused. He still thinks Gerard's cute and all, but he's pretty sure Gerard's off the market; there were three dresses in the guy's closet when they last had a movie marathon. That would be two days ago. Frank's not a rebound.

"I wanna ask you on a date but that might be kind of weird if you don't like dudes," Gerard explains.

"Are you shittin' me?" Frank asks. Gerard's pulled shit like this before. Frank doesn't wanna get into this and then have Gerard send him a text three days later saying 'lolololol cant believe u fell for that.'

"Aaaaand that means you probably aren't," Gerard sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry."

"No, no, I'm into dudes. Like, not exclusively, but into them nonetheless. I thought you were joking. You've pulled it before," Frank tells him.

"I wasn't. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come over for, like, dinner and other date-like things. I would offer to take you out but I don't know anywhere with good vegan food and I've been practicing with cooking milk-and-eggless shit," Gerard mumbles, blushing.

"...Pick me up here at eight," Frank says, a slow smile spreading across his face at the end.

"Seriously?" Gerard asks, excited. Frank nods. "Fuck yeah," Gerard says.

 

\---

 

The date goes well, and so do the after-date events, in which the second day the met's pegging conversation becomes relevant. It becomes relevant again the next morning when they wake up. And later in the shower. And after breakfast. No more needs to be said. 

Frank offers to take Gerard on their next date, because Frank does know good vegan places. Gerard finds out about them over the next few months of dating. He also learns a lot about that one spot right next to Frank's scorpion tattoo that really drives him insane, and the sounds he makes in turn make Gerard insane. The coffee shop gets popular, and Nicole gets engaged to a busboy Frank never really noticed (in all honesty, it's probably because the busboy's ass wasn't that great). Gerard's show is extremely popular, and he ends up making storyboards for the next ten episodes right after the last of a previous ten airs, leaving him plenty of time to bother his boyfriend at work. Most people think they're cute, made for each other, and so on. Others think they're gross. Frank and Gerard end up making out and grinding on each other when those ones are around. It's fantastic.

Gerard introduces Frank to his brother and family after the first month. Donna calls him cute, Mikey calls him cool, and Donald doesn't really care because that weekend is a Star Wars marathon. He takes a liking to Frank when Frank becomes just as enthralled as the Way patriarch. Frank introduces Gerard to his mom and dad, and is happy Gerard isn't all pushy about why they have to meet each parent separately. Frank loves 'em both, and they both love Frank, but with the divorce and all, it's easier that way. Frank also introduces Gerard to his dogs. Gerard is very impressed and reveals he also has a dog, but he's had his friend Ray keep her when they were on dates because he didn't want her to interrupt. Frank gets it. Gerard's dog is named Olivia. Olivia is amazing. Gerard is amazing. Everything is really fucking amazing. 

Frank's in love with the vanilla chai asshole, and he really wouldn't have it any other way.

 


End file.
